Senior music writer

He has already played a superhero on the big screen (kind of), is the eponymous character of his own movie franchise and, on the back of his new EP hitting No.1 on the iTunes chart in 21 countries (including Australia and the United States) on pre-order alone, has been described as a challenger to Justin Bieber’s pop crown – and all by the age of 19.

Best of all, as far as Australians are concerned, he was raised in Perth since the age of 2, so we can claim him as one of our own. (Born in South Africa? A minor detail, don’t worry about that.)

His name? Troye Sivan Mellet, although the 2.38 million fans who subscribe to his YouTube channel, his 1.6 million Twitter followers and his 900,000 Facebook fans know him better – just as you will as of now – as Troye Sivan.

Fairfax Media tried to get in touch with the fresh-faced sensation this morning, only to be told Sivan is unavailable due to recording commitments. However his boss at record label EMI, John O’Donnell, was happy to talk us through their discovery of the talented teenager.

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“Mark Holland, our A&R manager, heard the song The Fault in Our Stars in May last year and we all flipped on it,” O’Donnell says. “Mark flew to Perth the next day and signed Troye shortly after.

“Troye had a very strong vision for himself and every move we’ve made over the past 15 months has been helping Troye realise that vision, working with different co-writers and producers. The fact that Troye has a massive 'socials' platform was always there but we just focused on helping him get his music right.”

One imagines Sivan might not be answering his phone this morning anyway – it will be ringing off the datedly proverbial hook now his TRXYE EP is going gangbusters just about everywhere, and before you can even own anything from it other than its lead single Happy Little Pill, which is itself No.1 in 13 countries and top 10 in 31 more. At lunchtime on Monday (AEST), Sivan was at No.2 on the US Billboard real-time charts.

You will be able to get new tracks Touch, Fun and Gasoline and a refreshed version of The Fault in Our Stars when the rest of the EP is available on August 15.

For now, though, and actually even better than his Australian-ness, is the fact the single is actually pretty good. Happy Little Pill is a perfectly chilled slice of melancholic electronic pop with an intriguingly dark edge, on which Sivan sings about “cocaine, dollar bills and my happy little pill”. We can’t wait to hear the other songs anyway, but as far as the darkness is concerned, Gasoline reeks of promise (so to speak).

Troye Sivan was born in Johannesburg in 1995. His family moved to Perth in 1997, where he has had a following since he was seen singing on regional television at age 11. Before his 13th birthday Sivan was cast as the boy who would become the claw-sprouting title character of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and at 15 he returned to South Africa to play John “Spud” Milton opposite John Cleese in 2010’s Spud and two sequels.

In 2012 Sivan started posting video blogs to YouTube, which soon increased his fanbase exponentially. As O’Donnell mentioned, last year Sivan signed to EMI – on his 18th birthday, no less – and he has been working on his music ever since.

“What’s happening [in the iTunes charts] around the world is crazy but we know that the music is really powerful and stands and speaks for itself,” O’Donnell says. “Troye’s about half through finishing his debut album and it’s brilliant – a genius, dark, spooky, interesting pop record.”

Troye Sivan’s TRXYE EP is out on August 15 but available for order now. On ordering, you will get lead track Happy Little Pill, which can also be purchased separately.